Obituary Douglas Ford (1923-1993) Birmingham, Alabama

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OBITUARY

FORD, MR, DOUGLAS L., age 71, of Birmingham, died Friday, November 5, 1993. He was retired from Pacific Gas and Electric Company in Oakland, California.

Graveside service will be at 11:00 am at the Rosemount Gardens Cemetery. Mullins Metropolitan directing. Rev. R.R. Sommerville officiating.

Survivors include:, wife Laura (Stenson) Ford; son, two daughters, all of Birmingham, and daughter in Cleveland, Ohio. Three sisters: Ms. Catherine Ford, Mrs. Leola Williams, both of Birmingham, and Ms. Hattie Ford of Huntsville; brother Mr. Wilbert Jackson of Birmingham; two grandchildren and a host of nieces and nephews.

(Names of living people omitted).

Source: “Birmingham Post-Herald”. Birmingham, Alabama: November 9, 1993. Page 24. Retrieved: newspapers.com

FAMILY HISTORY

Douglas Ford was born on Feb. 21, 1923 in Mobile, Alabama to James Pettus Fort and Adelona “Addie” Curtis. The names of their other children: Wilbur Ford (1910-1981, Oakland, California), Catherine Louise “Pinkie” Ford (1918-1994) and Herman Ford (1921-?). In Mobile, Pettus Fort and family resided with his brother Elliot Fort and his family.

Pettus and Addie Fort Family – Reflections and 1920 Census, Alabama

1930 Census Addie Ford Family

The Fort family traces it’s origins to the Fort Plantation in Fort’s / Harrell’s Crossroads, Dallas County, Alabama. The matriarch of the family is an African-American enslaved woman named Julia (born around 1824), a cook and domestic for the Fort family.

– Leola (Jackson) Williams (1908-200), of Birmingham, mentioned in the obituary is the daughter of Pettus Fort and Mary Jackson (1886-1961).

– Pettus Fort is the father of my grandfather Robert “Bud” Ford, his mother was Mary Ella Martin (1897-1986). So Douglas Ford and Leola Williams are both half-siblings to my grandfather. The family always knew that we had kin in Birmingham but due to relocation in the North, and the death of my grandfather, we lost contact with the Ford/Fort kin in Alabama.

– The Hattie Ford (Forte), of Huntsville, mentioned in the obituary is actually Douglas Ford’s first cousin. Hattie is the daughter of Elliot Fort (1884-1931) and Julia Ann Mitchell (1871-1965). Elliott Fort (1884-1931) Family and Death Notice

– Douglas Ford was married twice. His first wife was Nettie Lou Motley. Marriage Douglas Ford and Nettie Lou Motley